


Mad Prince Rulf: Revelation

by sglottalk



Series: Crown Prince Rulf [15]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Angst, Birthday Party, Gen, Post-Canon, Reveal, Swearing, graveyard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-25 16:25:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6202522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sglottalk/pseuds/sglottalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the Emperor's birthday party, Crown Prince Rulf reveals Emperor Ezar's greatest secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"You seem to have a lot of respect for Prince Xav too," Serena commented, as Rulf lit the fire on the offering before Prince Xav's grave. "People never talk about you and Prince Xav. They only talk about your fascination with Emperor Yuri."

"If people knew about my admiration of Prince Xav," Rulf said, "they would just think I'm some Vor bore. Worshiping Yuri is way more fun. Besides, even in this day, Prince Xav does not lack admirers. Yuri is in more dire need of my love."

"It seems a bit strange, that you would admire both Yuri _and_ Xav."

"I hated Xav's guts for a while," Rulf said. "Then I realized that I misunderstood him. I had to apologize to him. After that, the better I got to know him, the more I liked him."

"But the civil war..."

"Oh, they definitely fucked with each other," Rulf said. "You know, I've never thought about it before, but I wonder if there was sexual tension between Yuri and Xav. Oooh, the scandal. If only there were some evidence, or even if there isn't any evidence..."

Serena did not want Rulf to continue with this line of thought, at least not out loud. "If I may ask, why? Why are you so interested in these people?"

Rulf watched the fire burn for a moment before he responded. "It started when I was eleven. I really wanted to know what it felt like to be them, to live like them. To never know who would betray me. To always be prepared to meet a painful death. To watch my family die around me, and yet live on."

"Couldn't you ask your father? He survived the Pretendership."

"My father expects things from me." Rulf gestured at the graves. "They don't. And they can't betray me."

Rulf waited until the fire died down before he spoke again.

"I talk to them a lot. That's why I burn so many offerings. As a teenager, I definitely talked to them a lot more than with my parents."

"What have they said?"

"Lots of things. In our conversations, I learned that it's not worth it to be unhappy when one doesn't have to be. Terrible things are going to happen no matter how one feels about them. Yuri and Xav had goodwill towards each other for most of their lives, yet look at how they ended up. It's better to enjoy life as one can."

Rulf cleaned up what was left of the offering, and walked through the graveyard. Rulf stopped at the grave of Ezar Vorbarra.

"I've never seen you burn an offering to him," Serena remarked.

"And I'm not going to start now. He was never a crown prince, you know. His father - my great-great-grandfather - was stripped of his title as prince. Ezar was born a mere Vorbarra. Heh, maybe I'll be stripped of my title too." 

He looked at Ezar's grave again. "Though I don't make offerings to him, sometimes I have something to say to him." Rulf spat on the grave. "If I had not promised to refrain from undressing in front of you, I would be saying some other things to him right now."

"But he's your ancestor!"

"I know. I know it in my blood." Rulf seemed lost in thought for a moment. "You know that I'm named after Admiral Rulf Vorhalas."

"Pardon?"

"My father was not going to name me after Grandpa Serg. But Admiral Vorhalas died beside my grandfather at Escobar, and the late Count Aral Vorkosigan had only good things to say of him. And Admiral Vorhalas did not have any sons. Since I have his name, he's in my blood too. Recently, I've spent some time getting to know him. I even burned an offering to him when I was in Vorhalas District last month."

"I thought you just went to Vorhalas District for, ah, business."

"I also had business. I do have a few clients there."

Rulf went back to staring at Ezar's grave.

"What are you thinking about?" Serena asked timidly.

"My father's birthday celebration next week." Rulf replied. "I know you didn't want to tell anyone about what you uncle did to you. But what if your parents were dead, and your uncle was dead, and you were dead, but you had kids or friends who were still alive. Would you want them to know?"

"I don't know."

"What if they loved your uncle and thought he had been a wonderful man?"

"My uncle is a good man in some ways," Serena replied.

"Would you rather they keep believing that Count Vordarian was an _impeccably_ good man, or that they knew the truth?"

"I'm not sure it would matter. Why are you asking me this?"

"Emperor Ezar, _my ancestor_ , is like your uncle. A good man _in some ways_ , but nobody talks about, probably hardly anyone knows that..." Rulf's voice trailed off.

"Did he commit a ... crime?" Serena asked.

"More than that. Much more. I figured out a lot when I was getting to know my Vorbarra family."

"So you're asking me," Serena said slowly, "whether you should tell people about ... whatever Emperor Ezar did?"

"Something like that," Rulf replied.

"Just because I feel one way about what I've experienced, that doesn't mean I can speak for Emperor Ezar's victims," Serena said. "You've also been a victim. You know, when you were eleven. I don't think I can speak any better for Ezar's victims than you can."

"Ezar's not alive in your blood," Rulf replied.

"He's not," Serena agreed.

Rulf took a deep breath. "I detest my father's private truths. He tells us about Grandpa Serg's crimes, but he still has never told the public. If we have a right to know, don't they? If he thinks they don't need to know, why does he think _we_ need to know? It's not like Granpa Serg or his victims are still alive. Well, maybe some of his off-world victims are still alive, but his crimes are no secret on Escobar or Beta Colony."

"Perhaps your father is concerned about the stability of the Imperium?"

"If this were the beginning of the Regency, I could buy that. Nowadays, that's a bullshit argument. Besides, you were a victim, I was a victim, Grandma Kareen was a victim. We have the right to stay silent about what happened to us. My father does not have that kind of right. He especially does not have that right because he carries Grandpa Serg in his blood. And when it comes to what my great-grandfather Ezar did, I don't have that kind of right."

"And you're thinking of saying something about it at your father's birthday celebration?"

"Yes. It's been a while since my father had made me attend anything like that, but since there is a new Crown Princess, we both have to go there in person. Even speak before the public. If I'm going to do that anyway, I might as well make it _worthwhile_."

"Ah, do you plan to do anything else, ah, interesting?" Serena inquired timidly.

"If I talk about Ezar, I don't think I'll need to do anything else interesting."

"I know Ezar is alive in your blood. Are any of his victims alive in your blood too?" Serena asked.

"Yes."

"Then maybe you can know. Through them."

***

The ImpSec officer spoke. "Sire, the crown prince is planning to say something about your grandfather Emperor Ezar at the ceremony."

"That his mother was a whore and he was the bastard son of a grocer? That he raped a sheep? That he was secretly lovers with Aral Vorkosigan?" Gregor asked.

"Something about a crime. I don't know what, Sire."

"If he does nothing worse than slander Our grandfather," Gregor said, "We will be relieved. It might even add some spice to the ceremony. Let's see what happens."

***

Crown Princess Serena only spoke for a few minutes. She had never had so many important people fix their attention on her, and there were those vid cameras transmitting her image all over Barrayar. No doubt the recordings were being tight-beamed to Komarr and Sergyar, and possibly through much of the Nexus. She wanted to hand the voice amplifier to Rulf as soon as she finished saying as little as she could get away.

Rulf had that gleam in his eye. That made Serena nervous in a different way. But he had said that he was not going to do anything 'interesting' beyond talk about Emperor Ezar, and Ezar had been dead for so long that Serena did not think Rulf could say anything that would be too bad.

She passed the voice amplifier to Rulf.


	2. Chapter 2

"I am lucky to still be alive," Rulf said to the people attending the ceremony. "Many crown princes have not lived this long.

"I wish to remember Crown Prince Anton. He was only five years old when he died in that groundcar crash. My own father, whose long life we are celebrating now, nearly died at that same age. Anton's primary caretaker, Lady Irina, loved him dearly. Her memoir, in which she describes the years she cared for him, is the best memorial there is to his brief life.

"I also wish to remember Crown Prince Anton's father, Emperor Yuri's youngest son, Crown Prince Edard. Even as a child, he fought valiantly against the Cetagandans. He was not much older than I am now when he died. He deserved to live to see more years of Barrayar at peace than he did.

"Though she was never a crown prince, I also wish to remember Crown Prince Edard's mother, Empress Mireille. Just as my own mother has made many contributions to the Imperium, Empress Mireille did many good things for Barrayar. And though she had a much longer life than any of her children and grandchildren, the manner of her death was the cruelest."

The people at the ceremony noticed that Rulf was actually unusually like a prince. Some hoped that perhaps marrying Serena had actually had a good influence on him. More of them noticed that Rulf was working his way towards, once again, praising Mad Emperor Yuri.

"It is controversial to honor Emperor Yuri at a gathering like this," Rulf continued. "However, there is no doubt that he was hurt again and again as he watched his beloved wife, his children, and his grandchildren die one by one. The wonder is not that he went mad, but that he stayed as sane as he did for as long as he did.

"And I cannot honor them here without acknowledging that ImpSec in Emperor Yuri's own day concluded that both Crown Prince Anton's death and Crown Prince Edard's death were pre-planned and successful assassinations - and that the perpetrator was the very same Barrayaran man who tortured. mutilated, and murdered Empress Mireille."

The ears of those who were particularly knowledgeable of Barrayaran history perked up at this. It was generally believed that a Cetagandan assassin, not a Barrayaran, had tortured and killed Empress Mireille. Though there had been many conspiracy theories about the true cause of Crown Prince Edard's death, it was accepted as historical fact that Crown Prince Anton's death had been a mere accident.

Rulf looked at where Count Miles Vorkosigan was sitting in his float-chair. "When ImpSec analyzed the semen found in Empress Mireille's body, it matched the DNA of Prince Xav Vorbarra."

Miles face went white. Had he been even ten years younger, he would have lunged forward, and made Rulf shut up. But life had taken too great a toll on Count Vorkosigan's body; he sat silently in rage.

Everyone else was too stunned to try to stop Rulf.

"I spent a _year_ believing that Prince Xav was responsible for starting Mad Yuri's War. But ImpSec was wrong. I was wrong. Your great-grandfather's gonads had been screwed up by the Cetagandans long before Empress Mireille's death - and he did not go to Beta Colony for treatment until after Yuri's war. The DNA test results must have been forged."

Miles' fury was slightly softened by bafflement.

Rulf looked at his father, Emperor Gregor. "I don't know whether my great-grandfather personally tortured and mutilated Empress Mireille, or whether he simply let his agents do his dirty work."

People throughout the chamber held their breath as they understood what Rulf was implying.

"The assassin responsible for Crown Prince Anton's murder is now best known as 'Captain Negri'. And most of the evidence which ImpSec gathered which implicated Prince Xav was supplied by a man then known as Ezar Vorbarra."

Gregor was motionless.

"The reason that Yuri did not try to kill General Piotr Vorkosigan," Rulf said, looking at Miles again, "is that Ezar had promised to take care of Piotr for him. Ezar also warned Prince Xav so that he would survive the night. It was not in Ezar's interests to warn any of the other targets. Leaving too many young potential imperial heirs alive would have been very inconvenient for his plans."

There was a resounding silence.

Prince Largon was the first to break the spell of shock. He rushed towards Rulf, yelling "How dare you slander...!"

"Largon, you are one irritating little brother who perpetually has a stick up his ass, but you are also the most honorable Vorbarra alive. Truth is not slander. For the sake of your own honor, _do not defend the traitor_ ," Rulf snapped back.

Largon stopped. It was not the fierceness itself, but the fact that _Rulf was being fierce_. Fierceness and Rulf did not go together. Largon no longer recognized his elder brother. 

"He started a bloody civil war just to steal a bloody throne!" Rulf exclaimed. The pretense of formality that Rulf has started with was gone. "And that was just the beginning. He is the one who authorized the invasion of Komarr. Oh, that's right," Rulf said with savage sarcasm, "all of us here are supposed to pretend that Komarr should be grateful for being colonized by Barrayar. We're all supposed to pretend that Barrayar is not a parasite sucking on Komarr's blood, and that Komarrans are better off under Barrayaran oppression. As a Komarran, I cannot pretend that, and for that reason alone I will never be emperor." 

Most of the people there believed that Rulf was crazy even before the ceremony, but none of them had ever seen him act with such _mania_ before. His energy hypnotized them. 

"And Ezar royally fucked Barrayar during his reign too. He's the one who gutted the Council of Counts of their power. The council is shit, but every Council of Counts which has ever existed on Barrayar had far better men that the slime Ezar put in power through his new ministries, especially the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Political Education. A corrupt elite got most of the economic benefits of improving material conditions, while most Barrayarans stayed as poor as they were at the time of Yuri's massacre. The reason why Aral Vorkosigan got so much bloody combat experience before he conquered Komarr is that Ezar's rule inspired much armed resistance, incidents like the Karian mutiny, until the Ministry of Political Education had terrorized the people and the military into submission. The rot went so deep that Ezar had to whip up the Escobar invasion and send his own son there to get killed in order to remove the cancer he himself had created. 

"Did he do this because he loved Barrayar? No! He did this because he loved _power_. Most of you here believe I am monster, but none of you could honestly claim that I am a _power-hungry_ monster like my dear great-grandfather Ezar. 

"I took learning as much as I could about my Vorbarra heritage seriously, and it was during my research that I discovered how Yuri had been wronged when I was thirteen. That was when I started burning offerings to him - it was not nearly enough, but it was the only way I knew to even begin to make amends. I was too shocked to talk about it with anyone alive - the only ones I could talk about it with were Anton, Edard, Mireille, and Yuri himself. When I learned that it was not Prince Xav, but my own great-grandfather, whose traitorous blood flows in my veins ... how dare I be a prince, let alone a crown prince? That is when I stopped giving a damn, once and for all, about being a prince. I keep burning, and burning, and burning, and burning, but no matter how many offerings I burn, it will never be enough. 

"I don't even want THIS! This exposure - AAAAAYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHH!" 

Rulf's voice became abruptly quiet, but with the voice amplifier, remained audible. "I justed wanted to tell the truth about the murders of Anton, Edard, and Mireille, and no more. I ... I ... I hate my own screaming. I _hate_ it!" 

The Barrayarans, including Gregor, were processing the implications of everything Rulf had just said about Emperor Ezar. But a Komarran woman, Laisa Toscane Vorbarra, saw her own son. She was the first one to notice the tears on Rulf's face. _My poor child_ , she thought. _You believe every word you just said. You held this back a long time. Why didn't you come to me earlier for help? This knowledge has hurt you a great deal._


	3. Chapter 3

"My father is going to drive himself crazy with the politics," Elizabeth said as she took another sip of whiskey. "I refuse to join him."

Hours after that _speech_ by Crown Prince Rulf the Emperor's Birthday ceremony, Elizabeth Vorkosigan Vorlakial, her husband Marius Vorlakial, and Prince Largon were drinking inside a small room inside Vorlakial House. All three of them were in their third year at the Imperial Military Service Academy. Of course, they were all on leave on account of the Emperor's Birthday.

"If it's true..." Largon said.

"It's not true," Marius snapped. "It's _Rulf_. Trust him to concoct such an over-the-top conspiracy theory, and then make such a cheap melodrama of it."

"It's not like Rulf to be like that. He's never done anything like that before. I know him, he's my brother..." Largon protested.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Rulf lives to surprise people. Just about the only thing he could do at this point which would surprise me is to start acting like a proper crown prince." Elizabeth took a look at Largon. "Who knows. Maybe _you're_ going to become the crown prince soon."

"I can't, I'm not ready, and there's my brother Negri..."

"You mean your brother who _nobody knows where he is_ ," Marius replied. "Lizzie's right. You may very well become crown prince. Our family would be very happy with that. Look at it this way - you can't be worse than Rulf."

"But if it is true that my great-grandfather..." Largon started to say.

"It's not," Elizabeth and Marius said in unison.

"... then would it be right for me to ..."

"Even if that ridiculous conspiracy theory from your brother's drug-addled mind is true," Elizabeth said, "your father is still Yuri's closest remaining kin, and let us not forget his line is also the last of the direct-male Vorbarra line. Yes, Emperor Ezar's father was disinherited, but only because Emperor Chelya wanted to make it crystal clear that he wanted Dorca to be his heir. Your great-great grandfather didn't do anything dishonorable, unlike your damn brother. Finally, your father is a damn fine emperor. Besides, who would replace him? A botanist?"

Marius laughed.

"What do you mean a botanist ... oh, you mean your brother," said Largon. Elizabeth's elder brother. Lord Vorkosigan, had broken with his the tradition of his forefathers, and instead followed in his mother's and paternal grandmother's footsteps. He had thrown himself into a career in botany.

Elizabeth re-filled a shot glass. "Largon, have another drink."

***

Princess Rebecca found the annual report on the status of terraforming on Sergyar which she had not read yet. Right now, she would rather wrap her head around the complexities of terraforming than think about what Rulf had said.

***

Princess Elena played music from 24th century Earth on the piano for her mother, Empress Laisa. She could tell that it was soothing her mother. Her mother needed it.

***

Prince Padma was intrigued.

He was horrified. It was not because of the political issues - Rulf had committed political suicide long before and was only credible to the people who were already inclined to trade in conspiracy theories. In fact, those people probably had already come up with several other 'Ezar was a usuper' theories long before Rulf came along. He was horrified because of how this hurt their father.

But he was also intrigued.

***

Serena's body language had a careful neutrality. After the end of the ceremony, Rulf asked Serena "Do you believe me?"

"I know you believe it," she replied.

Rulf was placed under house arrest, which meant only his own room in the Imperial Residence. He only left to cooperate with Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan's investigation. Before, he would have greatly enjoyed making Miles' head explode. Not this time.

Over the next few days, Serena sometimes visited, but they never spoke. They only breathed.

On the third day, Serena asked "What did you mean that Emperor Ezar sent his son to get killed at Escobar?"

"I never found any evidence, and I don't know how he did it," Rulf said, "but the way the Escobar invasion happened was coincidently the very best way that it could have happened to further Ezar's goals of eliminating Serg - who had tried to assassinate him - and destroying that monster he created, the Ministry of Political Education, which had also turned on him. And to do it all without raising suspicions against himself. And my gut tells me, with Ezar, that could not have been a coincidence."

Serena thought about this.

"I don't know history as well as you do, but if that's so ... it seems that Admiral Vorkosigan benefited more than Emperor Ezar," Serena said slowly. "If you think that someone, ah, set up the Escobar invasion, why the emperor and not the admiral?"

Silence.

"I remember Aral Vorkosigan," Rulf said. "I don't believe it was him."

Another moment of silence.

"My grandfather's brother died at Escobar," Serena observed.

They spoke no more. They just breathed. Rulf did not know whether or not Serena approved of what he had done, but he knew that if she had decided to end their friendship, she would not be breathing the same air as him.

***

On Komarr, Garry Stewbir was engrossed in his study of the history of civil protest movements on Escobar. His girlfriend, Arlet Frang, burst into the room. He smiled.

"Have you seen it yet?" she asked excitedly.

"Seen what?" he asked.

"Ooooh, you haven't seen it yet. Come out here."

He followed her.

"It's Crown Prince Rulf," she whispered.

Garry groaned.

"Oh, it's not like that," Arlet said. "This time, he's being a _good_ prince."

Garry wondered what the hell Rulf had done which Arlet would call 'good'.

She brought him to a group of her friends who were all huddled around a vid screen.

Rulf was shown on the screen. _"He is the one who authorized the invasion of Komarr. Oh, that's right, all of us here are supposed to pretend that Komarr should be grateful for being colonized by Barrayar. We're all supposed to pretend that Barrayar is not a parasite sucking on Komarr's blood, and that Komarrans are better off under Barrayaran oppression. As a Komarran, I cannot pretend that, and for that reason alone I will never be emperor."_

"Play it again!" said one of Arlet's friends.

They watched that clip over and over again.

Garry did not know what inspired Rulf to make that kind of statement in public. Then again, he often did not know what inspired Rulf. He would have to learn what the context of that statement was eventually, but his instincts told him it was best to remain blissfully ignorant a little longer.

"It's not true," Garry said. "Komarr receives considerable economic benefits as a part of the Imperium. Just the internal trade between Barrayar and Komarr alone..."

"Garry," said Arlet. "As _Barrayaran_ subjects, we have to say that Barrayar is good for us. But the crown prince doesn't. And there is nothing wrong with us listening to what the _Barrayaran_ crown prince says. I know that to have a career in the diplomatic service you have to demonstrate that you are more loyal to Barrayar than the Barrayarans themselves are, but I'm sure that, deep down, even _you_ are enjoying this."

Garry ran in his mind all of the justifications for imperial rule of Komarr. The Imperium was good for Komarr. And it was 'the Imperium', not 'Barrayar'. He believed it. He had to. There were problems, but the problems were being addressed, things were improving things all the time. Komarr was much better off as part of the Imperium than as an independent planet.

_This may be useful_ , a small voice in his head said. _The fact that Rulf, a high-status member of the class they perceive as their oppressors, is openly acknowledging their grievances will make them less inclined to extreme forms of resistance. The history of civil protest on Escobar make that lesson obvious_.

Garry quashed that voice. He served the Imperium, which meant both Barrayar _and_ Komarr. The two were not in conflict. He believed that Komarr and Barrayar were meant to be together, just like his mother and father.

But even he could not ignore the fact that most Komarrans did not believe it. Not even Arlet.

***

Gregor was not sure what to expect after that disaster of a ceremony, but he did not expect this.

The next day, things were very, very quiet. But, throughout the next week, all over Barrayar there were spontaneous celebrations of their emperor, many of which were far more in the spirit of honoring the emperor that the official birthday partying which often a stale exercise of tradition or an excuse for drinking.

Furthermore, all kinds of people in Gregor's life - the armsmen, the secretaries, the government officials - all made a point of showing him more kindness than usual.

There was also a lot of public anger directed at Crown Prince Rulf, and the calls to disinherit him became louder than ever.

Gregor did not think that the people were so afraid of him that they felt the need to show their loyalty to him.

"Minister Sykes, what do you make of this?" Gregor asked.

"The people, all of us, want to support you."

"But Rulf..."

"None of us think it's your fault, sire," replied Sykes. "Many of Barrayar's best emperors have had terrible sons. Actually, the fact that, oh, never mind, sire."

"What?" asked Gregor.

"I shouldn't say this but - having trouble with your son, it makes you seem a little more human and, not like, ah, the Impervious Emperor, sire."

"You assume the problem is with Rulf."

"It's obvious!" said Minister Sykes. "Sire, do you think your subjects are fools? Everyone knows he was being - something I can only describe with words I should not use in your company. Did you think any sane person would believe him?"

Gregor did not respond, but at least kept his face blank. Gregor was a master of keeping his face blank.

"You shouldn't be too hard on yourself, sire. We know he's wrong, and even if he were right, we would still support you. You became emperor because you are Vorbarra, and we swore our oaths to you because you are Vorbarra. But we love you because you are Gregor."

***

After the meeting with Minister Sykes, Gregor received a call from Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan. Gregor had dispatched him to discover what evidence there might be behind Rulf's accusations.

The look on Miles face was bad news.

"We need to schedule a meeting," Miles said.

"I take it you are ready to share your findings."

"Oh, I'm ready. And the summary of my findings is HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!"


	4. Chapter 4

Gregor put his finger on the piles of ImpSec reports from the reign of Emperor Yuri. "Are these authentic?" he asked.

"We can't be absolutely sure," Miles says, "but they pass every test we can think of. If they are forged, it's an amazing forgery."

Gregor took another look at a certain section of the report concerning Crown Prince Edard's death. "Most of the evidence was provided by 'Florizel'. Who was he?"

"Again, we can't really know, but ImpSec reports of that time often used codenames for important people. 'Florizel' was one of the codenames for Ezar."

"And how many people could know that?"

Miles sighed. "A lot. One of the documents listing the codenames from that era was declassified. Though it took Rulf a while to find it, and make the connection."

Gregor took another look at the report on Crown Prince Anton's death. "Viktor Blinsk confessed to sabotaging the groundcar on the behalf of Prince Xav. A confession extracted under torture because, per the report, all of ImpSec's then small supply of fast-penta had been contaminated, and importing fresh fast-penta would have taken a long time. What have you found about Viktor?"

"They also took Viktor's fingerprints, and a copy is attached to that report," Miles said. "Captain Negri's palm print was declassified 25 years after his death. As it so happens, Captain Negri's palm print a near perfect match for Viktor Blinsk's fingerprints."

"Is there any evidence that Viktor Blinsk, or Captain Negri, was working on Ezar's behalf?"

"No," said Miles.

"If it really was Captain Negri, can you think of any plausible motivation other than to support Ezar's bid for power?" Gregor asked.

"No," said Miles.

"None of these reports mention anything about Yuri and Ezar conspiring to 'take care' of General Piotr Vorkosigan," Gregor noted.

"Actually, Yuri himself is the one who made that claim," Miles said. "Yuri talked quite a bit about how Ezar betrayed him. Though it seems Yuri still thought that Xav was the one behind the assassinations, and that he had merely seduced Ezar with the promise of power, and that Xav was going to stab Ezar in the back as soon as Ezar stopped being useful to him. But to get the details of what Yuri claimed, you have to look in some very obscure archives. Apparently, during Ezar's reign, repeating or distributing Yuri's 'propaganda' was a sure way to draw the attention of the Ministry of Political Education."

"I'm not sure that Mad Yuri is a reliable source," said Gregor.

"No," said Miles. "If there ever were reliable sources, Ezar had three decades to eliminate them."

Gregor's face stiffened. "You believe that this really...?"

"It's not conclusive," Miles said. "But the more I look, the harder it is for me not to believe it."

"If so," Gregor asked "why did my grandfather let your father and Ivan's father live?"

"Did they ever harm your grandfather?" Miles asked.

"No," said Gregor.

"If Ezar believed they were turning into a threat, he could have ... taken care of them then. And my father at least was useful. As long as my grandfather wanted to keep him alive, he had a strong motivation to stay in Ezar's good graces."

Gregor took in a deep breath. "Where did you find these reports?"

"The library inside Vorrutyer House."

Gregor raised his eyebrows. "How much does Count Vorrutyer know?"

"Count Vorrutyer did not know anything about these documents before I came in there. I did not tell him what I was investigating, or why I wanted to go to the tiny section of the library dedicated to Mad Yuri - which I would not have found without his assistance, the Vorrutyer library is a nightmare to navigate - but Dono is no fool. He's probably figured at least part of this out by now."

"When did Rulf first see these documents?"

"When he was thirteen. I remember him coming to Vorkosigan House too - that's when he still seemed like an okay kid. He wanted to look through our records because he was absolutely mad about learning obscure historical facts about his Vorbarra family."

"Who else might have seen these documents at Vorrutyer House?"

"Obviously, the Vorrutyer family and their servants. Count Vorrutyer says that historians occasionally come to visit, but they are usually most interested in Pierre Le Sanguinaire. The only person, other than Rulf, who we know accessed these documents at Vorrutyer House was old Pierre, Dono's brother. He was the one who bought and most likely filed them in the library in the first place."

"Do you think Pierre read them? Understood them?"

Miles held out his hands. "Whatever he knew, he took that knowledge to the grave."

"You say Pierre bought them. From who?"

"George Flaupin. _Him_ I put under fast-penta. He really did not know what he had, did not even know that these were ImpSec reports. He just sold them to Pierre because Pierre was known for collecting odd, obscure historical documents and paid better than, say, university libraries. He inherited this little _treasure_ from his father, Jacques Flaupin. Who was a professional genealogist and amateur historian who ... well, before I explain who Jacques Flaupin's top client was, I'll address the other end of this document trail. You know that ImpSec has always been crazy paranoid."

"Yes, I believe I am aware of that," Gregor said dryly.

"And you know that, before Simon Illyan took over, re-organized, and created a proper classification system, ImpSec's files were a mess of certain people knowing about certain files and not knowing about others, the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing, right?"

"Oh, Simon has told me about _that_ at length," Gregor said.

"Yeah, well in Yuri's day, ImpSec was too paranoid to actually store all of their reports inside ImpSec headquarters. It turns out that there was at least one stash of important, sensitive reports, which were hidden in the Imperial Residence. Captain Negri almost certainly never knew of this particular stash, because if he had," Miles pointed to the reports on the desk "these would have been destroyed." 

"Captain Negri had every centimeter of the Imperial Residence searched with a fine-tooth comb multiple times," Gregor said. "Is it plausible that he would have never found them?"

"ImpSec failed to find a _Cetagandan lab_ which had been sitting under its nose for decades," Miles pointed out. "For all I know, someone in Negri's ImpSec did find the stash, realized what it was, decided that it was too hot to touch, and never reported it. Most of that documents from that stash, if they still exist, are probably somewhere in the Vorrutyer library, God knows where." Miles shook his head. "I don't even want to think about whatever other skeletons might be buried there."

"And how did Jacques Flaupin the genealogist get them?"

"Jacques Flaupin's most loyal client," Miles said, "was Vidal Vordarian. Who rewarded him by giving him free run of the Imperial Residence. Where he discovered a certain stash of old documents."

The air in the room became colder.

"I don't think Jacques Flaupin knew right away just what he had. But George Flaupin reports that his father generally analyzed these things thoroughly. It was probably only a matter of time before he figured it out. And he was a sincere supporter of Vordarian. He committed suicide shortly after the Pretender was beheaded. For all I know, if Vordarian had lived one more day, Flaupin might have presented this to him."

"If Vordarian had gotten his hands on this..." Gregor said.

"It would have depended on whether or not he was believed," Miles said. "But if Vordarian presented a convincing case, many people - including my own grandfather - would have gone to his side. He would have won, and you would be dead."

"And your father?" Gregor asked.

It was Miles' turn to take a deep breath. "If he had known this, it would have destroyed him. I ... I am not sure what he would have done. I think he would have stayed on your side. Fought his own father. And not survived."

There was a moment of silence.

"Captain Negri died to save me when I was five years old," Gregor said. "I named my own son after him. Yet Crown Prince Anton was also five years old when..."

More silence.

"What does this mean for us?" Gregor said in a faint voice.

Miles heard that it was an 'us' and not an 'Us'.

"You are my liege-lord and my foster brother. That is far more important to me than anything our ancestors did," Miles said. "There ... there is something else I need to tell you. Something that Rulf doesn't know, though he suspects it to some extent. I talked to Simon about this, and Simon told me something about the Escobar invasion..."


	5. Chapter 5

"Simon never confirmed this," Miles said, "but based on what he saw during the Escobar invasion, he eventually reached the conclusion that my father knew about the plasma mirrors in advance. And that he deliberately withheld the information from everyone else in the military command, and manipulated your father so that he would be in the right place and the right time to get himself blown up."

" _Simon Illyan_ said this?" Gregor asked.

"Yes," said Miles.

Silence.

Gregor still was not convinced that Ezar had done what Rulf claimed he had. But Gregor trusted both Simon Illyan's competency and honor, and if Simon Illyan had come to a conclusion like this...

... about _Aral Vorkosgian_ ...

The silence throbbed.

Gregor would have sooner believed that his grandfather was the mastermind behind Yuri's massacre, than that _Aral Vorkosigan_ would have deliberately committed the high treason of sabotaging the Escobar invasion, killing thousands of innocent people, no matter how much his own father, Prince Serg, had deserved to be blown up.

If _Aral Vorkosigan_ had done such a thing, Gregor did not know what to believe anymore.

"At first I thought Simon had lost his marbles," Miles said. "But when I took a good hard look at some of the details of what had happened during the Escobar invasion ... things weren't adding up. But they add up if you assume the whole point of the invasion was to kill Prince Serg and Admiral Vorrutyer, restore the career of Admiral Vorkosigan, and permanently discredit Grishnov and his cronies.

"Mother once said something about how I put Da on a pedestal, and that I should try to see him as a fallible human being. I think that was around the time she was telling me about Da's relationship with Ges Vorrutyer. But this ... this isn't just taking Da off a pedestal. This is not the Da I knew." That last sentence was a whimper.

"You know, until I had that conversation with Simon," Miles babbled, and Gregor knew Miles was babbling partially because Miles could not stand the silence, "I was ready to think that this was all some amazing plot by Vordarian. It would have taken months and inside help from ImpSec to make a forgery this good, but we know that Vordarian had inside help, and that he had months to plan the coup, and maybe he even planted those documents so that Flaupin could find them and testify under fast penta ... but after seeing the things which didn't add up with the Escobar invasion, I started seeing all of the things which didn't add up with Yuri's massacre. 

"Wasn't it quite a coincidence that Prince Xav's son and most of the eligible imperial heirs who would have been mostly useless in a fight against Yuri were killed that night, yet Ezar's warning managed to get through to Xav and Xav alone - and it is a confirmed fact that Ezar was the one who warned Xav, Xav is on record as having said that - while Ezar's messengers who were sent to warn the others never made it? Yuri's war would have been over in less than a year if Yuri hadn't still been an excellent military leader. Yet successful military leaders who can hold out over a year against the combined forces of _Piotr Vorkosigan_ , _Xav Vorbarra_ , and _Ezar Vorbarra_ with at least half of Barrayar at their backs have at least a tenuous grasp of reality, and if Yuri had that tenuous grasp of reality, why the hell hadn't he even tried to kill my grandfather along with everyone else, it was obvious that he would not have accepted my grandmother's and their children's deaths, and he was even more dangerous to keep alive than Prince Xav himself? And why the hell didn't Yuri try to kill Ezar along with everyone else - if he felt that Price Xav, who had been born a bastard, as well as the children of his _daughters_ were a threat, why didn't he consider Ezar, the last of the direct-male-line Vorbarras, to be a threat at well? And how did Ezar know about the massacre in the first place, and send a warning to Xav?

"And Empress Mireille - God, what a sick way to murder someone, I want to scrub my brain - how had the Cetagandan assassin done all that and gotten away without a trace? And Crown Prince Anton, how did that groundcar crash get ruled an accident? Even then drivers for the Imperial family were carefully screened, and the groundcars were inspected everyday, and the eyewitness accounts we have don't make sense. And Crown Prince Edard's death makes even less sense ... I once thought that Yuri had offed him himself, but only because I had assumed that Yuri was that kind of crazy...

"And finally, in my experience, one of the best ways to figure out who is behind a conspiracy, is to look at who has something to gain from it. Who gained anything from Yuri's massacre and Yuri's war? Not Yuri. Not Xav. But Ezar gained _an entire planet_.

"It was still awfully convenient that Vordarian's man found those documents the way he did, but even if it's a forgery, I think they may have stumbled on the truth by accident. And if Ezar sabotaged a major war campaign and destroyed a significant portion of our military strength just to kill his own son..."

"But didn't Simon say that ... your father ... did it?" Gregor stammered.

"Simon thinks that Ezar made my father do that at Escobar. And if Ezar was willing to do that ... and create the horror that was the Ministry of Political Education, and there is no doubt whatsoever that he did _that_ ... then why wouldn't he also have set up Yuri's massacre?"

"These truths ... these lies ... it is enough to make one go mad," Gregor said. "And to think, that when I found out what my father was really like, that I thought that was the worst possible revelation ..."

Gregor thought back on the moment he _knew_ about his father, and then the moment on the balcony.

"My son has been keeping this madness to himself for over ten years," Gregor said. "If I had found those documents, at that age..."

"My mother would have done something about it," Miles replied. "And what are you going to do about Rulf? I trust that you are finally going to disinherit him."

"No," said Gregor.

"Why the bloody hell not?" Mile screamed. "There is a reason you have _four sons_."

"Negri," said Gregor. "Negri should be crown prince."

"I don't necessarily disagree, but there is a little problem with that," said Miles. "Prince Negri isn't here. Or is he? Have you been hiding him in your closet all this time?"

"Negri is not ready to return to Barrayar," said Gregor. "And I can't name him my heir until he returns."

"I would be _very grateful_ if you named Prince Largon your heir," Miles said. "I would also accept Prince Padma. Anyone but Rulf."

"I expect Largon to become a great military officer. I would not be surprised if he becomes admiral before he is forty," Gregor said. "But I do not think he would be a good emperor. And Padma is young."

"Largon would be much better than Rulf," Miles said.

"But if Largon became crown prince, it would be very difficult to make Negri my heir when he returns," said Gregor. "So far, Negri is the only one who has proven himself. Until Negri returns, I will not name a new crown prince."

Miles let out an exasperated groan. "Please don't tell me that you are going to let Rulf _loose_ after this!"

"No," said Gregor. "Rulf and Serena are going to go on a very long honeymoon, far from the public eye."

"Excellent!" said Miles. "Are you sending them to Kyril Island?"

"No. Vervain."

Miles eyes popped. "You want Rulf to blow up the Hegen Hub alliance?"

"The Vervani won't even know that my son is there. The two of them will travel to Vervain under cover identities. 

"I'm not sure that would stop Rulf."

"I will also send Ivan to watch them."

"Whatever did Ivan do that was so terrible that he deserves _that_ duty?" Miles asked.

"Earning my trust," Gregor replied. 

Gregor turned his head and sighed. "For so long, I had been afraid that I would turn into my father. Then I was afraid that my sons would turn into my father. I was so afraid that that was what was happening with Rulf, I did not realize that he was going mad in an entirely different way. There are some things which I knew about love for as long as I remember which Rulf's marriage is making me question. I thought I had been a good and attentive father, a good protector of my children, and Rulf is proving that's not entirely true. And now these things I'm learning about your father, and my grandfather ... I am seeing just how many of the things I know are not so. All because of Rulf. Knowing that so many things are not what they seemed, that basic ideas that I believed about the world are not true ... my son has brought me a truly terrible gift."

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I must thank DonSample for an idea I liked so much that I wrote it into this chapter.
> 
> Second, I want to thank you all for reading. I wanted to write something which would spark discussion, and that is what happened. Not only has the comments-to-hits ratio been high, the quality of the comments is also high. I thank everybody who has left a comment.
> 
> Third, as you may have figured out, the premise for this fic was 'What is the worst thing I could do to Gregor via his son?" Rulf is not the worst that could have happened to Gregor via his son(s) (I can think of things which are even worse, which I would put into writing if I decided to write novella-length stories about Rulf's brothers), but it's still bad enough to make for a story which is not boring (err, I assume that this story is not boring. I don't think you would have read this far if the story bored you).
> 
> Fourth, I know a lot of you want to give Rulf a painful kick in the ass. I DO TOO!!!! Boy do I want to do something painful to Rulf which will make him grow up! Unfortunately, I was not able to work that into this story because the premise is 'what is a terrible thing I could do to Gregor' not 'what is a terrible thing I could do to Rulf'. I think I would have to write an entire story around the latter in order to deliver the justice that Rulf deserves, because anything less would not be enough.
> 
> Fifth, I am not marking this series complete because 1) I would like to write something about Rulf/Serena/Ivan on Vervain, though it would probably be more about Vervain than the characters and 2) there are some scenes which I wasn't sure I should write. I've now concluded that some of those scenes should be written after all, so I would like to eventually fill them in. However, while I may write a Vervain-centric epilogue and fill in missing scenes, the main portion of the story is complete.
> 
> Sixth, I am not the first person to write fanfic about there being some kind of conspiracy standing behind the official history of Yuri's massacre. Some other examples are ["Mad Yuri's War](http://archiveofourown.org/works/394612) and ["Betrothal Gifts"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2667368).
> 
> Seventh, whew. I need a break from writing fanfic. But it was a lot of fun. Except for the bits which weren't fun, but it was worth it.
> 
> Once again, thank you all for reading.


End file.
